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James and Cat

Tuesday, 18 March 2014

Two crafty devils

At home it is a funny sight. The two of us are deeply concentrating on different secret projects. These projects are the product of chatting about what would be cool to have at our wedding, what we have seen at wedding fairs and crazy ideas we believe we can pull off in the short space of time we have.

We are both very creative and crafty people. In this post I will go through the steps to create the Pride and Prejudice book clutch. A little bit of background information first. One of Catherine’s favourite books of all time is Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice. She has recently got me started on reading the book for the first time. I am reading it on my lunch breaks on my Iphone Kindle App. It is really good(like an old timey TOWIE). Most days I will regale Catherine with my interpretation of what I had read that day, so that I don’t get lost or uninterested. It normally goes along the line of “Oooohhh it’s all kick’in off!!!!” followed by a broad Tyrone slang of what actually happened. Let’s just say I got quite wrapped up in it. Catherine had shown me around 8 months ago a picture of a book turned into a handbag and said that she would love one.

Now was the time. I did the research and found an outline of how to do it also I found the retail versions very expensive. First of all I ordered the hardback Barnes and Noble edition of Pride and Prejudice from Amazon.

Other things you will need

1 small paint brush

1 exacto knife or Stanley blade

Loads of PVA glue.

A ruler

Loads if time and patience

Once you have everything together it’s time to start. Open your chosen book and skip a few pages. With the book open cover the sides of the book in PVA glue also between the last page and the back cover. Still with it open set a weight on top and let it dry (I left it overnight). The PVA glue will dry hard and clear.

Remove the weight and take out your knife. Leave around 0.5 – 0.75 inches around the page as a wall and start cutting the inside rectangle. This after a long time will leave you with a shallow hole. PVA glue the walls of the hollow and the top and sides again. This time close the book. Since you skipped a few pages to begin with the glue will not stick to the cover. Weight down and let it dry.

When dry cut an X in the top pages and fold down to help cover the sides of the walls PVA glue and let it dry.

That’s it... Just attach a hinge (easily available on ebay and job done.)

For the personal touch I used all the pages I cut out to make wrapping paper for the book clutch bag. Wrapped in brown twine, with a note written on the first page of the book.

This post is not just for me to show off but it is to inspire people to be creative and to think outside the box. The Pride and Prejudice book clutch would have made an amazing wedding gift for the morning of our wedding however I just couldn’t wait that long. I guess I have set the bar pretty high for that gift.